Chapter 187 - Slip Of Tongue

"Fily!" Gem shouted before they could even land at the headquarters ' garage, making Von's flight unstable and his landing imperfect.

"Chill!" Von shouted and was obviously ignored when Gem just suddenly stepped on his back and jumped over a lot of people that had gathered around Fily and the two female guards beside her under the wrong impression of Fily needing immediate help.

"Gem!" Fily gasped and quickly went out of her mind palace to welcome Gem with wide arms… except her hands were tied to the chair along with his legs and body so she could not move.

But nevertheless, she was fairly sure that Gem would recognize the look in her eyes as a relieved and thankful person immediately.

However, unlike Fily's expectations, Gem did not pay attention to her just yet. She prioritized fighting with the two female guards which prolonged the situation instead of just jumping towards her and freeing her from the ropes so they could have just run away together.

"Which would be a faster and more practical move right now," Fily thought to herself while secretly cutting the rope that was tying her hands to the chair by rabbit it together and trying to create friction which would help snap the rope faster according to an encyclopedia that Fily recalled in her mind palace as a way to look for survival guide and assistance.

"Let's go," Von suddenly whispered from behind and cut the ropes around her legs and arms which almost made Fily jump from the shock of it, especially with her focus still on Gem.

"Hey! Von!" Fily whispered with a muffled voice and accidentally kicked Von too hard to get his attention while he was still focused on cutting the rope around her.

"Ouch! The hell?! Why do you guys keep kicking me?!" Von complained and stood up to finally remove the duct tape from Fily's mouth.

"The slanderer's escaping! Get out of our way, young girl!" the fierce woman said and swiftly grabbed a whip from the available tools which she then used to try and fight off Gem, but Gem's control over her slimes got stronger now and she could even bend it to copy the fierce lady's whip and battle it with her while also simultaneously dodging the other girl's coordinated attacks with the fierce lady.

"I should bring you guys to Solitude so we wouldn't hurt the civilians here," Gem said and molded a ball of slime in front of her, planning to throw it to the ladies' faces to keep them from seeing anything.

"Let's just go, Gem!" Fily shouted which caught the attention of everyone in the garage, including the two guards who suddenly got distracted and accidentally hit each other with their respective weapons, namely the whip and the baseball bat when Gem just suddenly disappeared from being in front of them.

"Where did she go?" the fierce lady said and wandered her eyes around the area, only to see Gem, Fily, and Von running off to the same hallway where Petunia, Lei, and Venedette went.

"Oh no, what are we going to do now?" the kind-looking lady said while keeping silent about the accident that happened to her and the fierce lady guard and only caressing the area that got hurt in her body.

"We're going to follow after them, quickly!" the fierce lady shouted and was immediately followed by the other female guards on standby in the garage.

"But Master Petunia told us to stay here," the other lady tried to reason but the fierce lady guard was not in a good mood to consider what she was saying as the best thing to do with these intruders who just suddenly engaged in a fistfight with them and ran off with their prisoner.

"That doesn't matter. Petunia's in there right now and soon, she will be surrounded by those cold-hearted freaks who don't even believe that she's Petunia."

"But they're still her teammates, right? I'm sure a little talk between themselves wouldn't hurt anyone, right?"

"Didn't you see how that girl and the Princess acted in front of Petunia while she was obviously looking sick!? They just watched her and if it wasn't for that other guy, Petunia might have been really in deep trouble right now! She needs our help! Just in case," the furry lover said and left the kind-looking girl in the garage with half of the female guards keeping the prisoners and the male guards together.

"Stay here and make sure no one escapes," the fierce guard said before leaving with the soldiers that she sent back to the headquarters ' hallways.

***

"Well that was easy," Gem said and shrugged to Fily with a proud smile plastered on her face for facing two full-grown adult women in a battle of 2 vs. 1.

"Not for me! You guys are so heavy!" Von complained and placed more strength in his arms so he could fly with Gem and Fily hanging in his hands longer. At least until they found Venedette and the others in this huge, maze-like facility with identical corners and design in every turn.

"Go right," Fily said while tracing Lei and Venedette's tracks by recalling what she knows about the building and the place where Lei probably took the fake Petunia at.

"Straight and then… left!" Fily said after murmuring something about the water dispensers.

"There!" Fily said after finally seeing two human figures from the distance.

"Mom!" Von shouted after recognizing who it was and held on his breath for the last five seconds that he endured carrying both Gem and Fily like that.

When he dropped them both to the floor, Von could not even feel his arms anymore as the pain was just all over the place. Still, he just shook it off and flew in front of his mom who was yet to answer his call.

But instead of the cheerful happy-go-lucky Venedette, Von was taken aback by the empty look in her eyes as if she was just looking at nothing.

"Mom? Mom, what's wrong?!" Von shouted and tried to shake her mother out of it but Venedette's expressions were just empty and her movements became so drowsy as if her muscles were asleep.

"They're running away! You need to go after them, Von! We can't let them get away from this. I'll take care of Venedette from here, you should also go with him, Gem," Fily ordered which the two of them immediately followed.

Without wasting another second, Gem hopped on Von's back and zoomed in across the long hallway, trying to catch up to Lei whose speed was on par with Von's flying which only made things harder for them.

"Hey! Lei!! Stop! What are you doing?! What did you do to Venedette?!" Gem shouted behind Von which encouraged Von to go after them faster.

"Can he hear us?" Gem asked and immediately turned on her stat-hut screen to send a message to Lei instead.

[Gem: Where are you going? Why are you running away? Did you do that to Venedette? Please stop, we need to talk! We're actually running after you!] Gem hit send and looked at Lei with pleading eyes even though she was well aware that he could not see them from behind.

***

"Gem messaged me, I think they're here with your collar," Lei sand and glanced behind him but Petunia, who he was carrying between his shoulders, quickly pushed his head away and said, "Just focus on the road," while still trying to concentrate with her glamour that did not work with Venedette but kind of worked with Lei based on his treatment to her now.

"Is Venedette still flying after us?" Lei asked and attempted to look back again but immediately gave up when he saw Petunia still blocking his vision from behind with an annoyed face.

"Yes, just focus on the road, please. Where did Gem and Von say they were anyway?" Petunia asked without telling Lei about the temporary Freezing dust that she sprayed on Venedette earlier as she kept her balance on Lei's arms and took deep breaths to make her pre-glamour work better without Lei drinking her glamour potion yet.

"Gem said they're running after us, that's why I was trying to look back," Lei said which annoyed Heize even more for distracting her concentration.

Since Lei was an elite shinobi of a higher bloodline from another country, Heize found it harder to convince Lei to drink her potion without a strong pre-glamour planted in his mind which she was trying to do now.

But as soon as she understood what Lei said, she quickly looked back and confirmed that there were indeed two familiar kids running after them! 

"They're here! I hope they have the two most important things that I need to get from this super coup!" Heize said, accidentally spilling words she was not supposed to say for being too relieved of seeing them both run after her which almost blew her cover for pretending to be Petunia.

"What did you say?" Lei asked, his eyes going back and forth from the fake Petunia with confusion and disbelief etched in his face for being betrayed by someone he trusted.